People Patting themselves on the Back For Not Watching Television, Eating At Chain Restaurants, Listening to the Radio, etc. : C/d?

Your secret mental list of chain restaurants that you will not frequent

-- ryan (augustuscaesar2...), April 3rd, 2005.

no, more in that i live to plunder, pillage and eat everything, enmnjoying y short and brutish existence. hail odin, etc.

Jody, ok, you like television. So how does it follow from that that it's irritating if someone else doesn't?

because if they don't even watch it, how do they know they don't like it?

um, because I watched TV for a whole lot more years than I didn't? And I don't pat myself on the back for not having a TV. Never sitting through ads is its own reward. I'm more than entertained enough by music and the net (DVDs on occasion, though usually only socially). TV would be a distraction.

And the nether regions of digital cable != "television."

x-post $$$ you pedant

I do sometimes wish I had HBO so I could watch shows like Deadwood (which I've only heard about). But I can get that on DVD now, can't I?

but you're basing your opinion of tv on the way tv was maybe 5 years ago. if you watched now you'd see different programs, different channels, different commercials. plus, saying you hate tv is like saying you hate music or food -- it's an awfully broad statement and dismisses the entire breadth of a very diverse and populous ecosystem.

To me, "I never watch/hate television" is not that different from bragging about not reading books or liking music of any kind. Plenty of excellent art has been made for television, and I think that willfully avoiding art is distasteful. It's one thing to show discretion (duh, lots of crap is on tv, same is true of EVERY OTHER ARTISTIC MEDIUM KNOWN TO MAN), but ridiculous cultural asceticism in the service of snobbery is another.

Dude, it's not television's fault that your friends have shitty taste!

1) I don't like ads or shows that are cut up into 20 pieces in order to make room for ads, thus eliminating for me the majority of television.

2) I do like a few television shows (Conan O'Brien and The Daily Show, for example), but none enough to warrant having a TV)

3) I am an addictive personality, and if I have a TV, I will watch it a lot, including watching a lot of stuff that I don't really want to waste my time watching. Hence I'd rather just not have it in my house at all.

. Plenty of excellent art has been made for television, and I think that willfully avoiding art is distasteful.

Oh, is that right??? So when was the last time you attended a ballet? Seen any good Chinese Operas lately? Who's your favorite ceramicist? Name your top 5 slam poets.

woops. meant 'don't dig,' natch

-- Matthew C Perpetua

Believe me, I got bored of talking about not owning a TV pretty quickly (it's been 5 years now). In fact, many of my friends still watch TV, and I often feel left out when I hear them talking about it.

plus, saying you hate tv is like saying you hate music or food

I understand the point of comparison with music, but food? One needs to eat/drink *something* in order to survive, it's a necessity. Any avenue of artistic media suffers in comparison, regardless how important it can be to your conception of self and how one chooses to engage one's attentions.

In fact, many of my friends still watch TV, and I often feel left out when I hear them talking about it.

Hm...now that I think about it, TV as a point of discussion just doesn't come up that much among my friends in the area here. Instead we're wont to discuss other things in life and other media -- movies more often, books and music, for instance. Doubtless we all have different experiences on this front that shapes our perceptions of what is 'normal' and what isn't.

Admittedly this is entirely because I grew up in a house where a television was on 24/7 (literally--my mother cannot sleep without one on) and I taught myself to tune out regular programming so well (in order to get other stuff done instead of watching the 27th episode of Jerry Springer that week or MSfuckingNBC--my mom watches absolute nonsense) that I kind of have difficulties teaching myself to tune it back in.

That being said I don't think I'd be happy to give up tv, even though I only turn it on once a week or so--having to go to a bar every time I wanted to watch a playoff game last October was total bullshit! Kind of fun but dude, other people sometimes aren't what I wanna deal with!

I havent listened deliberately to any radio for years. I just dont get anything from it.

-- adam (hexenductio...), April 4th, 2005.

EXACTLY! i don't watch tv hardly at all myself (except DVDs and tapes). i never listen to the radio either. and i DON'T CARE if other people do or do not. its just PROFOUNDLY irritating when people make a habit of mentioning it in casual conversation.

I'm a pretty big fan of serialized narrative, and that's one of tv's major strengths. I love HBO in particular because it offers an artistic choice for filmmakers that regular cinema cannot offer - the ability to tell a longform novelistic story with relavitely few compromises. The Sorpanos, The Wire - I love that. And I'm a pretty big comedy nerd too, and I think that television is an ideal format for comedy.

You 'miss out' only if you feel a need for constant contact, and that it's now extremely easy to do an end-runaround that issue, as you note -- and as it stands I have a creeping horror over letting something so prosaic as a TV schedule or a need to be-in-touch-by-next-week-or-else dictate my choices for indulgence. Also, strictly speaking, we all missed out out approximately 234564164541254154 artistic achievements in all fields that happened before we were born or were aware of what was going on or before anyone had regular access to them, so humanity is playing catchup regularly. And personally I just find it more easy and interesting to note what is current with music rather than with TV, say.

Heheh, your point is taken but my frowny surprise was primarily because how often dude'd been mentioned *here* on ILX, contextual to this particular medium -- I had (incorrectly) assumed that due to a number of the related threads about his work and how involved they'd gotten that most everyone would have known his name by default. But there are detailed sports threads that I'm sure mention folks I've barely heard of if at all, for instance, thus my assumption's fallacy.

What I'm reading is, "Hey, what's with all these people who don't like popular things? Aren't they just a bunch of posers?" And the answer is, not always, and what's the point of that question, anyway?

People Patting themselves on the Back For Not Watching Television, Eating At Chain Restaurants, Listening to the Radio, etc. : C/d?

ostentatious

adj 1: intended to attract notice and impress others; "an ostentatious sable coat" [syn: pretentious] [ant: unostentatious] 2: of a display that is tawdry or vulgar [syn: pretentious, kitsch]

-- sunburned and snowblind (fluxion2...), April 4th, 2005. (kenan) (later)

if it's in italics can you read?

enjoy it or not, latebloomer just don't give a fuck (essentially.) xposts

And by the way, blount, why are you being a dickhead?

it was like a bunch of white people congratulation themselves for not being racist. gee, thanks!

FWIW dude, kenan, I agree with the original premise of the thread ie managing to do what was totally normal to do less than 100 years ago isn't exactly a reason to feel proud of yourself. The only reason I came in personally to try to defend my tv-less-ness is just cos it got a little combative.

I don't eat at chain restaurants (more difficult for me to actually do so than to eat at other restaurants, here) or listen to the radio (don't get reception here, didn't in my last apt) either!!! I'm like King Ostentatious!!! I'M VERY OFFENDED BY ALL OF YOU.

xpost xpost xpost!

I think we disagree on what the thread question defines. And I'm no more guilty of pratting than you are, bud.

I'm sorry, phil. If it means anything to you, I think gay Asians are just adorable! And I love thinking that!

xpost the thread makes it clear cos it specifically says "people who pat themselves on the back"

I understand that, but if we're going to ascribe the condition to real-life situations, you have to ascribe the diagnoses of that condition to a real-life situation, too. Like I said several posts ago, how does he know? How does he know pretentious from opinionated? He doesn't. None of us do. Pretentiousness is not a condition whose only symptom is bitching about TV, and that's rather what the thread set-up implies.

FWIW, I do give latebloomer more credit than that as a whole, I just think that starting this thread was a bad impulse.

also the thread set up is not just about tv at all, it was turned into such by later posts.

how the hell is anti-elitism a 'bad impulse'

It's not, but it can be just as much a knee-jerk impulse as elitism.

You know I am!

im going to be chicago tomorrow so i'll let you deep throat me if you want to pat yourself on the back for not being homophobic or racist.

That's the fairest trade I've ever heard of.

BUT IT'S NOT! THAT'S THE WHOLE THING!

Which is why I take exception to the thread premise. It's limiting. That's all.

ohh if only every straight guy were as open-minded as you..

anyways, tv is for people with no social lives. by "people with no social lives", i mean "people who dont go out and get wasted at open bars all night every night". though ive heard deadwood is good. and i think one of the CSI guys is kinda hot. and one of my friends is fucking one of americas next top models. and there are still no asians on network television.

this thread was meant to be about the second dude.

I understand that, but if we're going to ascribe the condition to real-life situations, you have to ascribe the diagnoses of that condition to a real-life situation, too. Like I said several posts ago, how does he know? How does he know pretentious from opinionated? He doesn't. None of us do. Pretentiousness is not a condition whose only symptom is bitching about TV, and that's rather what the thread set-up implies.

FWIW, I do give latebloomer more credit than that as a whole, I just think that starting this thread was a bad impulse.

-- sunburned and snowblind (fluxion2...), April 4th, 2005.

yeah, somehow i knew i was gonna regret starting this thread.

anyway, for the most part you're probably right, but i've known someone who said onetime in a conversation several times "I never watch tv, it's so stupid and commercial" and then later on ask me, "Dude did you see Seinfeld last night? It was AWESOME!"

but then again, i probably just know too many dumbasses.

It's really down to timing and priorities, those few hours at the end of the day are my only chance to read books, a diversion I've always vastly preferred to watching televison. So I don't brag about it, but I'm sure as shit not going to apologize either.

Some friends and I were talking about television at the communist bookstore – how the hell I ended up there I do not know – but anyhow, some annoying twat piped up, “TV IS EVIL!!” and I said, “No, you’re wrong, it’s heavenly.”

Am I happier for it? Hell yes.

Do I pat myself on the back for it? For greater peace of mind, yes.

Do I brag about it? Of course not! That's silly.

"Patting oneself on back" is not equal to "Bragging about it".

The former must be some sort of colloquialism I've been missing all this time.

I also get my blast of commercial radio whenever I take a cab home half the time (yes, the cabbies here listen to NPR half the time.) I find myself liking what I hear... probably because I'm never overexposed to it, so I don't ever experience this pop culture angst that I used to have in my younger years. Probably why I don't mind, say, Limp Bizkit. I only hear a song by them a few times a year.